Manufactures and distributors of golf carts and recreational vehicles ATVs of the type where two passengers sit side by side need a way to economically transport un-crated vehicles of various sizes from their factories to distributors and dealers world wide. These vehicles are generally of the order of 5 feet in width so that they cannot be loaded side by side in a conventional trailer.
Shipping golf carts and larger ATVs from the manufactures to dealers and distributors in semi-trailers and without crating provides significant savings to both the manufactures and dealer/distributor by eliminating the cost of constructing “one time use” crates and substantially reducing freight costs and fuel emissions by transporting double the freight in one haul.
Another benefit of this transportation is that it also eliminates the dealer personnel having to unload crated vehicles using forklifts or similar arrangements. This also can reduce the damage and warranty claims for damages since the equipment transported is available for immediate visual inspection rather than waiting until the equipment is un-crated at the time of sale to a customer.
A standard semi-trailer is 53 ft long, 8 ft 6 inches wide and from floor to ceiling is approx 9 ft 2 inches in height. These dimensions are such that the hauling capacity can be doubled if a multi tier system is installed which provides stacking of un-crated vehicles within the semi-trailer.
It is clear that a dedicated semi-trailer could be modified or constructed with a fixed deck between the floor and roof of the semi-trailer but this prevents the use of the trailer for shipping other general freight than the product for which it is designed and dedicated.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,524,055 (Overbye) issued Feb. 25, 2003 is disclosed a modification of a trailer for transporting vehicles of this general type in which the trailer includes a plurality of logistics posts along the sides on which are mounted a series of E-bars at spaced positions along the trailer. The E-bars span the trailer and support left, center and right tracks installed along the length of the trailer onto which the vehicles are rolled and are carried. This provides therefore a second row of transportation for the vehicles located above the trailer floor. A ramp structure is provided which allows the vehicles to be rolled into place either on the floor or on the second row. In order to convert the trailer from transporting the vehicles to transporting general cargo, the ramps must be removed and stored.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,786,222 (Blodgett) issued Nov. 22, 1988 is disclosed a trailer designed for transporting automobiles in two rows.